I wonder what nash was saying seeing kobe hit those long 2's in the 4th quarter. lol. Probably jumping in happiness. lol. He's probably more furious at the loss than all of us. Like kobe, he HATES S.A. Can't wait until these 2 teams meet again. Kobe, and nash will TEAR THEM APART. Dwight as well, he's continuing to improve.

King of Clutch wrote:I wonder what nash was saying seeing kobe hit those long 2's in the 4th quarter. lol. Probably jumping in happiness. lol. He's probably more furious at the loss than all of us. Like kobe, he HATES S.A. Can't wait until these 2 teams meet again. Kobe, and nash will TEAR THEM APART. Dwight as well, he's continuing to improve.

I'm pretty encouraged with what I saw tonight. They got consecutive stops at some points and the timing on offense is getting better. I learned a lot about basketball with Mike Brown... about what NOT to do. It's amazing what a set pattern in rotations/minutes can do for team consistency.

But it's still funny to see our bigs line up and clasp their hands for pick, only to find a chest pass fired right at them.

There are two teams that play in the Staples Center:the LA Lakers and NBA Clippers.

We would have won if we didn't turn it over so much. that was our game to win. and IMO it was a lot closer than I thought it would be. some questionable whistles on Dwight and of course a lot of no whistles.

we limit our turnovers from the 17-20 range to 12 and we win. simple as that. we have got to protect the ball and not get stripped. also giving up 2nd chance points bc we play great D and get a stop and then just cant grab the rebound bc we try using 1 hand or were fighting with eachother over it and it goes out of bounds.

also trying to do too much (morris) isnt gunna help if you cant finish at the rim. he cant finish a contested layup so he should penetrate and kick out if he HAS to do something.

overall, if we limit turnovers and play smart ball and value each possession as well as fully grabbing every rebound then we'll be okay. i dont think anyone expected this team, the way it is right now, to almost win against the spurs who havent changed their roster at all pretty much and are jelling very well. took manu out of the game pretty much and parker wasnt too effective like he normally is. the 2nd dwight leaves they attacked so hes obviously doing something right

easyguy wrote:I'm not worried about the Spurs, I want to see the Lakers with Heats and Thunders.

You should be. The Spurs are as good as any team in the league. If it wasn't for the obvious fixing of game 6 of last year's West Finals the Spurs beat the Thunder, make the Finals, and probably beat Miami.

Our defense was great, I really think we did a good job. The offense was smooth when Kobe was running the show (though atrocious without him on the court). One big problem was that we didn't make a lot of open looks, but we made the right plays (except for Pau's not passing to a cutting Kobe and then launching the 3).

We're spoiled Lakers fans (and I love being one) so losing is never good, but we looked a whole lot better than in the previous four losses. Spurs also deserve a lot of credit on this one.

Kobe was, again, impressive, and Dwight, while he wasn't good on the offensive end, he did a great job on the defensive end. Pau also played good D this time (but he can't get asleep after catching a rebound...).

Steve Blake is a bad player, but we missed him a lot (of course, Nash would be over9000 times better). Morris flat out s**ks and Duhon wasn't able to organize the offense on any level (though this could improve with a little more playing time).

We'll see what happens with D'Antoni, but so far, I feel we're headed in the right direction, it's just been a slow and misguided start (courtesy of Mike Brown).

I am happy with how the Lakers have been outrebounding other teams and it hasn't been by a little. The defense has been really quite good. Funny how Spurs fans are saying that it is because their team shot poorly rather than a good Lakers defense.

"Better learn not to talk to me. You shake the tree, a leopard's gonna fall out." - Kobe Bryant

One of the funniest posts I've read in a sports forum:

"Lebron's talents went South, his hair went North, and his mom went West."

i think a narrow loss to a team at full strength who has been beating pretty much everyone when you're missing your top two pgs is actually progress for this team. i hate the way it happened, but they had to play timmy and tony basically the entire second half and were able to employ the ol' "don't guard the lakers pg" defensive scheme. should be fun to see how that works when nash is back.

abeer3 wrote:i think a narrow loss to a team at full strength who has been beating pretty much everyone when you're missing your top two pgs is actually progress for this team. i hate the way it happened, but they had to play timmy and tony basically the entire second half and were able to employ the ol' "don't guard the lakers pg" defensive scheme. should be fun to see how that works when nash is back.

With Nash on board, I don't doubt we can beat the Spurs with this current team. The two teams I'm concerned about are at the very top of the NBA food chain - the Heat and OKC. While we certainly could lose to a few other teams out there in a series, I believe we'll make it to the WCF. Beyond that who knows? Although this is probably premature given our current record and having to start over with a new coach and system.

We're 3-5 but the good thing is we have plenty of room for improvement. Since Mike Brown got fired we have been playing much better. Right now some of our key players are struggling -- Pau, Metta, Antawn, Meeks. If we can get some or hopefully all of them to play better, along with the addition of Nash and D'Antoni, we should be damn good.

abeer3 wrote:i think a narrow loss to a team at full strength who has been beating pretty much everyone when you're missing your top two pgs is actually progress for this team. i hate the way it happened, but they had to play timmy and tony basically the entire second half and were able to employ the ol' "don't guard the lakers pg" defensive scheme. should be fun to see how that works when nash is back.

abeer3 wrote:i think a narrow loss to a team at full strength who has been beating pretty much everyone when you're missing your top two pgs is actually progress for this team. i hate the way it happened, but they had to play timmy and tony basically the entire second half and were able to employ the ol' "don't guard the lakers pg" defensive scheme. should be fun to see how that works when nash is back.

Real, I am just loving this ... I remember reading the bet and thinking if this happens it will reach legendary status on CL.

"Better learn not to talk to me. You shake the tree, a leopard's gonna fall out." - Kobe Bryant

One of the funniest posts I've read in a sports forum:

"Lebron's talents went South, his hair went North, and his mom went West."

its never a good thing when the Lakers lose but i'm ok with last night...i was actually worried that we'd get run on and picked apart but the team played well...it just shows the kind of talent we have that we can hang with the sperms playing pick up ball

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Jerry Buss wrote:One of the biggest reasons I bought the Lakers was to beat the Celtics …..you just got it into your soul that you couldn't stand the Celtics anymore

I'm actually much more optimistic about the defense after watching them play the Spurs last night. The effort was there for a lot more of the game. Howard looks to be getting his timing back. Parker didn't have the career game I thought he would, though he still did pretty good. I was actually pleasantly surprised.

Now, if we can just get them to focus on not throwing terrible passes and get the bigs to hold on to the ball better. Howard drove to the basket and stopped under the hoop multiple times, giving the defense the opportunity to slap the ball away before he could even go up with it. He needs to get the ball up faster and hold on to it tighter. I expect all those turnovers from Meeks, but not Howard. Get rid of the slop and we win that game last night, and defense would have been a big reason for it.

The Spurs game winner was a great example of a solidly executed play call by a coach that knows how to draw up a play. I hope to see this from the Lakers sometime soon. Our last play was a glaring reminder of how much good coaching plays into a game.